Grace came late in life. Her parents never expected to have a child. But when she arrived they were so happy they immediately began spoiling her. They had some means, so it was easy for them to treat her like a princess and tell her that she was one, too.

Grace attended a private elementary school and was taught all the graces of society early on, like playing the piano and how to conduct herself even before being sent off to a private girls' finishing and high school. Returning home for holidays, her parents lavished gifts of clothes, jewelry and the best things that she needed for school. A new car when she was 16.

They cautioned Grace not to fall in love too soon and sent her off to a top private university where she joined a sorority that would give her an advantage later on. She excelled in college because of her intelligence and private schooling that put her above her classmates.

At a holiday party back with her parents in her senior year Grace met an older man with a young son that was her equivalent in intellect and ambition. With everyone's approval, she gave her heart to him. They planned to marry in the spring. 

But a danger lurked in her family that came to roost. Her parents, eating so well all those years, became obese and diabetic. That led to her father having a stroke as they prepared for her wedding he was paying for and worrying about. Grace postponed her wedding. Her father didn't recover and they had to put him in a nursing home because neither her mother nor she knew how to care for him. He was only in the nursing home six months before he choked on some food and died.

Grace took hold of the family fortune, making sure that both she and her mother were well taken care of because her father, at such a young age of only 63 had not written a will. She helped her mother write one that would give everything to her upon her mother's death. Grace's mother's blood sugar and pressure were higher than her father's. Within three months of her father's death, her mourning mother died from a massive heart attack. Grace was alone in the world.

But her love came to her rescue and encouraged her to marry him. They honeymooned in Europe where his family had ties, but Grace felt hollow and did not enjoy everything that he offered her. She was pondering job offers she received after graduation and picked one with a major corporation in a distant city. Her husband left his good job to join her, but Grace, because she was a top student, got a mid-management position while her husband had to start out again in his new company at the ground floor.

Still hurting from losing her parents, Grace threw herself at her work. Trying to erase them from her thoughts, she sold their old house in the East and all of their belongings except some mementos like picture albums and her mother's jewelry, and bought a brand-new house, way too large for the three of them, in an up-and-coming section of the city.

Grace thrived at her work. She dressed well, made up for success, and had her hair and nails professionally done so she looked powerful in those business suits and acted the part as well. But at home, things weren't going so well. With no baby to cement them together mutually and an economic downturn causing her husband to lose his job, in their seventh year of marriage, Grace divorced him.

Giving him ample compensation for his time with her, but finally realizing they were incompatible from the start. She regretted losing the boy, but he was from another marriage and even though they tried, she could not have a child, they learned. Inherited from her parents' genetic birth problems.

Grace's expensive clothes required dry-cleaning and alteration. She found a little shop with a hard-working immigrant proprietor that she found would put up with her overbearing attitude and constant need to alter her clothes to suit her needs, as well as frequent dry-cleaning of her suits and jackets so they would be immaculate when she entered boardrooms and other meetings. She even encouraged the proprietor to work with her exclusively and close her shop.

When Grace reached the height of her career, she had many friends from work and held lavish, catered parties at her house filled with the finest furniture money could buy. She realized that no man was really good enough for her and flirted with them, but never committed like she had with her husband. She had her sights on being a single woman CEO.

But Grace did not realize that her attitude was working against her. So, when another economic downturn came and the president of the company had a consulting firm reorganize and downsize, the consulting firm determined that Grace was more of a liability than an asset. She was summarily dismissed without a golden parachute, just the retirement funds she had gathered in 17 years of service.

With the economy the way it was, Grace made many applications and tried all the angles, including paying headhunters to find a job that she felt she was highly capable of. Her friends encouraged her as the months wore on, and she didn't change her lifestyle because of the wealth inherited from her parents and her retirement that she could easily live on. But didn't want to. She wanted the stressful life of corporate competition, insider social climbing. She craved it.

Executive jobs, especially in a weak economy, are difficult to find, even with the best credentials. Grace was gaining weight and no longer looked the part of an attractive young woman with all the right assets. So, after trying for all of those executive positions failed she grew discouraged. It was because she seemed to interview from desperation rather than strength. A common problem for those in the executive ranks who have risen beyond their ability to work in high places. Grace became discouraged as no new prospects surfaced. They just dried up and her friends begin leaving her side.

The first thing to go was her new Mercedes. It was too expensive to maintain, so she sold it and bought a new Toyota to get around in. She let her landscaper go and started to do her own yard with little success because she didn't know how to properly care for her lawn, trees, shrubs and flowers. Grace no longer hired a housecleaning service and did it herself. Ate out at restaurants less and started cooking for herself. But she continued to drop by the alteration shop because even the secondhand clothes she bought needed to fit her. And, she was fond of the proprietor, always willing to listen to her woes.

With intelligence tends to come mental illness. Grace began making irrational decisions leading to the loss of more of her assets. She started to drive remaining friends away who had sympathized with her when she lost her job. Finally, one of her friends connected her with an analyst who helped her until she found that his fees were way too high and he wasn't making any real progress that she could see, so she took pleasure in firing him. "He just listens, Grace complained, doesn't tell me anything that will help me."

Repairs and bills started piling up for the house and taxes were due. As she sold furniture, the house became empty and lonelier all the time. There was only one recourse, sell the place. But the principal left on the mortgage ate up most of the money she made in the sale, and back taxes took another chunk. Still, she had enough to buy a condo where she didn't have to maintain the property but had to pay a hefty monthly maintenance fee.

That didn't work out either. Before too long, growing behind on her maintenance fee, the condo management foreclosed on her home and she was evicted. Literally on the street and losing weight along with any good looks she may have possessed before, Grace sought help from her alteration shop friend and was directed to social services where she landed a job in a customer service cubicle and a public housing apartment in a bad neighborhood.

All of the stress, poor diet, and former diet and splurge weight loss and gain pattern, had left her with diabetes, a bad heart, and her only ability to walk: at first, with a cane, and then later, a walker. Just like old people when she was only in her 50s. Grace still came to the shop when she could and even accepted clothes from the proprietor and food when they had some for lunch.

And then, Grace disappeared from the shop. There was word that she was in hospice. She disappeared from life without contributing much to it. Some people fall hard from grace when they have so much to begin with. They are also the welfare poor in the end. Most just don't know it. They never encountered Grace and her troubles like the immigrant, sewing her way into health, wealth and happiness while having empathy for customers' storms of fate. It's never too late.

Copyright 2022 © Ronald W. Hull

10/25/22